On Thin Ice by Jamie Bastedo

In the small town of Nannurtalik, Alaska a young fifteen year old, Ashley, has a thriving passion for drawing polar bears she’s seen in her sleep. As more blizzards start to hit, Ashley’s dreams become more vivid and slowly begin to jump into reality as well as shootings begin. Ashley’s feeling afraid for these bears she loves and wants to protect them as much as she possibly can. Ashley now must discover if she is dreaming what’s quickly turned to reality. Also she must work to protect the polar bears, her family and Nannurtalik. On Thin Ice represents man vs. nature as well as juggling around a few other themes, the way Amanda Morrone the author of Devoured. Amanda Morrone juggled her themes, though she used the themes of man vs. man and man vs. nature by having the main character keep herself and her family and friends safe from those mythical yet realistic creatures such as ghosts and more. On Thin Ice showed this by having Ashley adventure to keep the polar bears unharmed in and outside of her dreams, and most definitely to keep them safe from men, and their guns. After one of the first shootings occurred, Ashley’s family welcomes in few of the people from their town, into their home. “But the fact we had a marauding polar bear in our midst and the consequences could have been much, much worse.”(125) explained Raymond one of the residents. The author catches the readers’ attention by having scenes packed full of action, dialogue and even brief facts. This fiction book could be recommended to an audience of young teens and older. If the audience was not interested in long fiction and action genres this would not be a suitable novel.

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